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Biologists with the Northeast Fisheries Science Center are expected to perform a necropsy to determine the cause of death.

Basking Shark: Although it's the second largest living fish and looks menacing, they are slow-moving and generally harmless, feeding on plankton rather than people

Unusual sight: The shark washed ashore on Misquamicut State Beach, a state park in Westerly Rhode Island

LARGEST ITEMS TO WASH UP ON THE EAST COAST

The strong currents that run along the eastern seaboard of the United States lead all manner of wildlife to be washed ashore:

July 2012, A decomposed pig washed ashore from New York's East River. Dubbed the 'East River Monster' it baffled locals for days before the creature could be identified.

June 2012, 10 dead sea turtles washed ashore along the Delaware and New Jersey coastlines. One leatherback was 5ft long and 500 pounds in weight.

March, 2012, An enormous Atlantic Sturgeon washed up on a South Carolina beach. Alarmingly large and strange-looking with their scales they can grow to be as big as 15 feet long and 800 pounds

February 2012, Rescuers struggled to save more than 100 dolphins that beached themselves on the shores of Cape Cod, Massachusetts

According to Mystic Aquarium, which
sent staff members to the scene, basking sharks are giant migratory fish
that feed on nothing but plankton. They are common in New England
waters.

While their body shape and size resemble that of great white sharks, basking sharks can be differentiated by their massive jaws and gill slits.

Basking sharks are filter feeders that sieve small animals from the water.

As the basking shark swims with its mouth open, masses of water filled with prey flow through its mouth. The prey includes plankton, invertebrates, baby fish, and fish eggs. After closing its mouth, the shark uses gill rakers that filter the nourishment from the water.

The basking shark is also called the sunfish, the bone shark, the elephant shark, the sailfish shark, and the big mouth shark.

This particular shark is believed to have died from natural causes before washing ashore.

The migratory species – a filter feeder not harmful to humans - is common from Canada from Florida.

According to BBC Nature, only the whale shark is larger than the basking shark.

Female basking sharks are up to 33 feet; males are up to 45 feet and weighs up to 4 tons.

Despite a superficial similarity to the fearsome great white shark and a massive jaw one metre wide, basking sharks are actually harmless filter feeders.

They use more than 5,000 gill rakers to strain plankton from around 1.5 million litres of water per hour. Basking sharks are born travelers, covering large distances in search of food, at the very leisurely pace of only three miles per hour.